Western intelligence agents and United Nations nuclear officials agree: more nuclear sites may exist in Iran than what has been revealed to inspectors by the Islamic Republic.
U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors suspected the existence of at least two new plants after noting comments by the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, in a recent interview with the Iranian Student News Agency.
Salehi said during the interview that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered the construction of two additional nuclear plants, to be "built inside mountains." Salehi added, "God willing we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites" after the start of the Iranian new year – which began March 21.
Several months ago, a second uranium enrichment site, located at Qum and kept secret for years, was revealed to U.N. inspectors by the Iranian government. At the time, Ahmadinejad declared that 10 such enrichment sites would be built in the near future, thereby allowing Iran to produce and enrich its own nuclear fuel. Western officials disregarded the statement as an empty boast, saying Iran did not have the budget or the technical capability to build such facilities.
IAEA inspectors in Vienna told The New York Times over the weekend, however, that Salehi was likely accurate in his description of the two new sites. Intelligence agents have been insisting for months that Iran has been building additional nuclear sites and upgrading its ability to enrich uranium in order to build an atomic weapon of mass destruction.
Israel has repeatedly urged the United States and the rest of the international community to step up its efforts to impose stronger economic and diplomatic sanctions as a means of persuading Iran to halt its nuclear development program. But although the United States has been working to persuade the other members of the U.N. Security Council to join in the effort, Russia and China have been reluctant to do so.